Watch-key or holding-tool



(No Model.)

G. L.:HOLT.

WATCH KEY 0R HOLDING 11001:. A v No. 278,550] Patented May 29,1883.

N. PETERS. FholmLilllcgraphcr. Walhinglon. D C.

- a UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GARDNER L. HOLT, OFSPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, ssreuoa To WILLIAM H. ROBERTSON, or BRooKnYsNEw YORK.

WATCH-KEY OR HOLDING-TOOL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters IPatent No; 278,550, dated May 29, 1883. i Application filed February 9, 1883. (No model.) i

To all whom it may concern V Beit knownthat], GARDNER L. Horn, of Springfield, Hampden county, Massachusetts, haveinvented an Improved Self-Adjusting Watch-Key or Holding-Tool, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference beinghad to the accompanyin g drawings, forming part of this specification.

My invention consists in the combination, in a watch-key or tool for grasping and holding small objects, of the devices hereinafter particularly described and co-operating as and for the purpose hereinafter specified.

Figure l is a longitudinal central section of a watch'key embodying my improvement. Fig. 2 is a cross-section of the'key on the line a: m, Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is an elevation 'in'de tail of my improved gripping-jaws and their spring-shanks.

Ayis the tube or barrel of the-instrument, in

which the operating parts arelodged. The

lowerend of the tube is open, as shown at a, while the upper or opposite end is capped or closed as seen at a and in said ca or end piece is formed the angular slot a This slot may be four-sided and rectangular or poly-- sided and correspondingly angular. I prefer to make it four-sided and rectangular, as shown.

B Bare the gripping-jaws or forceps, and a they are mounted or formed on the ends of the shanks CO. These shanks are in the form of leaf-springsas ate, with the ends 0 adapted to be placed flatwise together and secured by a rivet, 0 Upon the extremity of these united ends 0 is cut a screw-thread, as shown in Fig. 3. Immediatelybelow the jaws B B the outer sides or faces of the shank ends are inclined ihwardly, as seen at 0 and this portion 0 of each of the shank ends is made to conformandfit into the angular slot a in the end of the tube A-that is to say, when the shanks of the jaws are passed intothe tube, as shown in Fig. f1, the outer faces of the inclined portions c of the spring-shanks will coincide with and conform to the adj acent walls of theslot a A flange, b, extendstaronnd the shank ends, just below the baseof the gripping-jaws B. The jaws and spring-shanks being lodged in the tube as described, a coil-spring, D, is introduced into .the' lower section of the tube around the united ends of the shanks, and having bearing upon a shoulder, 01, in the tube at one end, and at the other against the face of a recessed nut or cap, E, which is passed into the open end of the tube and screwed down onto the ends of the shanks, and has its heel projectin g beyond the end of the tube. When the heel of the nut or cap E is pressed upon,

as by the thumb, the jaws B are projected from the opposite end of the tube, and they are opened or spread by the action of the springshanksfthe inclined portions c of each shank playingin the angular slot a and thus allowing thejaws to separate. Thejaws may thus be employed to grip objectsof varying sizes, such as the arbors of watch-movements, and when introduced upon such arbor or other object itis evident that by withdrawing the pressure from the cap E the jaws will be receded into the tube by the action of the coilspring, and being brought more or less together by the action of the inclined ends 0 of the shanks working in slots a said jaws will be closed down upon the arbor or other object. When the instrument is thus gripped upon the arbor and is desired to be employed to rotate the arbor, it is evident that when thus used the strain-will be wholly borne by the angm lar portion of the shanks, as at 0 resting and fitting in the angular slot a and the liability of thejaws to be spread in the operation of ro tat-ion be thus obviated.

' Hitherto in instruments of this description a pin has been fixed transversely of the tube or barrel and intermediate the jaws, which operated tospread the jaws when they were forced outward of the tube, and which received In an adjustable watch-key or tool-holder and angular portions 0 together with the w in which the gripping-jaws are carried by spring -D and cap E, alltconstrneted and arshanks lodged in a barrel or tube, and are disranged to operate substantially as and for the tended by being protruded from andolosed purpose specified. by being retreated within the tube, the combination, with the tube A,having endal, v'vith GARDNER its angular slot (c of the jaws 13, having Witnesses: flange b, and carried by the shanks 0, having ALLEN WEBSTER,

spring portions 0, united end 0, and inclined GEO. S. BURT. 

